Rouhani’s PR rejects claims on private dinner with US congressmen

Iranian president's deputy chief of staff for communications and information, Parviz Esmaeili, said Saturday that the claims raised in some American media outlets about a private dinner attended by President Rouhani and three Democratic congressmen in 2013 in New York were “baseless” and “completely false.”

“All of President Rouhani’s meetings and talks during his annual trips to New York for the UN sessions are done with prior notice, and there has never been any ‘private’ meeting whatsoever,” Esmaeili said.

He went on to add, “these include President Rouhani’s visit to New York in 2013, during which he held a meeting with Muslim scholars and leaders of the American Muslim community,” he added, pointing out that the news coverage and pictures related to the meeting had been published on the president’s website at the time.

“The claim on President Rouhani’s private dinner or secret meeting with those people are completely false,” he stressed. “The president’s agenda for UN trips only includes a friendly gathering with Iranian expatriates in the US.”